World Magazine 2024
Car owners far and wide know how important their vehicle truly is. For various purposes, owning your own car is very exciting, liberating, and rewarding. You can do so much with a personal set of wheels that are otherwise not available. For example, you no longer depend on others for your transportation needs. You do not have to use public transport in your own city and you can have road trips whenever you feel like it. Grocery shopping becomes a breeze and you get to have those pleasure rides when you just want to tune out, drive around, and listen to your favorite music.
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Owning a Car Is Not The Same For Everyone
Many believe that modern adult is not living their life to the fullest when they do not have a personal vehicle. While this may not be true for everyone, it is certainly more optimal to have one. Of course, not everyone needs a car but most people want to have (at least) one. And then there is the other kind of folk who live for their cars, those who view them as more than just machines and means of transportation. It is quite common for people to develop strong bonds with their vehicles as it has been common throughout history. However, this reached its peak when cars became widely available to the average, working class.
Taking Things a Step Further
Car heads, as they are often called, spend most of their free time tuning, cleaning, and maintaining their vehicle. They do this even when there is nothing wrong with it simply because it is their hobby and pleasure. Reading about cars, watching videos, and going to car shows to share their knowledge and ideas with like-minded people are very important to them. However, nothing is more important than upgrading their cars so that they in some way, shape, or form perform better than they did. Tuning and customizing cars is a whole industry on its own. It is an art form in its own right apart from being a high-end mechanical skill. And out of all the things that an average car head does to their beloved vehicle, chiptuning is by far the most common. In this article, we talk about chiptuning cars, particularly about tips and pitfalls to be aware of. Read on to learn more about this and be sure to click here for additional info.
1. Let the Professionals Do It
First and foremost, you should know that only the professionals should be the ones who chiptune your car. It is a delicate process and it can be different from car to car. Therefore, do not let just about anyone attempt to do this. Ask around about a garage or a mechanic who is experienced and who has tuned many chips in their career. If your town lacks such an individual, go to the next town over, or the one after that. Never let amateurs attempt this because they can seriously ruin your vehicle, often beyond repair.
2. Know What It Is
If you want to tune the chip of your four-wheeler, it is only natural that you know exactly what it is. Chiptuning sounds cool and goes without saying that the vehicle is in some way better after it. But what does it really do? Well, tuners tap into the engine control unit (ECU) of your car and modify the parameters in charge of how much air and fuel is present in the combustion chamber of the engine. Tinkering with this unlocks more power of the car and effectively gives it more horsepower, better fuel efficiency, and so on. Rev limits can be changed, speed limiters can be removed, and many other things customized.
3. It Could Be Irreversible
Unless absolute experts perform this “surgery”, it will be a permanent modification to your car. Is this a bad thing, we hear you ask. Well, not necessarily, but you cannot go back to the stock settings on your own. You will have to take the car back to the tuner and ask them to do a reverse tuning. A record of the tuning is also made, something known as flash count, and the authorized dealer may make your warranty void. As mentioned, experts can have it reprogrammed and reassembled so that it looks like nothing has ever been changed.
4. It May Not Make Sense to Do
Chip tuning does not always make sense to have it done to your car. The reason for this is very simple. Not all cars are made the same, nor are their electronics programmed the same. For some cars, especially older ones, the chip tuning does not make logical or financial sense because the benefits are not that great. You will end up paying for a very low increase in performance or a slightly better fuel economy that will not be felt in the long run. Before you decide to have a car chiptuned, evaluate your options and learn what the end result would be. Only proceed with it if the changes can actually be felt.
5. Performance Can Be Decreased
Last but certainly not least, we need to talk about botched chip tuning of cars. We already mentioned that things could go very wrong and ruin the car. However, the procedure could look as if everything went rather well only for the car to start behaving worse than it did. Make no mistake, it will still run and you will still be able to use it for your everyday needs. However, a poorly tuned electronic control unit can result in a performance decrease, poorer driveability, and eventual engine damage. This could be the worst-case scenario too because if things go bad immediately at least you know that you need repairs. If the tuning is done poorly, you do not always get to learn about it immediately but sometime down the line. In some cases, the modifications do not do anything despite the tuning being done right. The car may just be impossible to tune for some reason.
